Tradition!

Last night we had our traditional Church Christmas social. The theme this year was..yes, you guessed it...Christmas family traditions. We had members give us pictures of their family get togethers or anything they wanted to share about what they traditionally do to celebrate this season. Stacy (Crawford Family blog) put together a really nice video of all the pics and added many beautiful Temple Christmas scenes along with music. Thanks Stacy for all your hard work in a short period of time! Jack's High Priest group was in charge and I think it all came out great. The food was good, the entertainment was a nice mix of many of the season's fun and spiritual activities that many families do this time of year.I found this pic of my Dad and Mom celebrating their first Christmas together....I laughed at all the tinsel on the tree. My Dad really loved Christmas and I guess tinsel! That was a tradition growing up. We always had to put tons of tinsel on our trees and Dad used to say.."One stran at a time..but when we couldn't stand it any more we threw it on in clumps! He never minded because I think he believed as I do..all trees look beautiful after the lights are turned on! What are some of your traditions? >a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7dv3JMpp7jYolOyx3QglbMXtDbCcoW70gQmmJLlltoqIfQhk8O8QkpMgNohxiqB2-PYiJhk6AoBICQ2K0X6wESUlFW9ytqxcLPfJPPhRYuzH8X-8xy7m0NgZS4sIKmwK4rVxrXSCk810/s1600/MomandDadcd.JPG">When these cuties were wheeled in I knew I needed a quick pic of our newest members...Twins,Tommy and Ellie. They came decked out in Santa attire. It's hard to believe that just a few months ago I blogged about their baby shower!
Families started filing in, taking time to chit chat. Something we are really good at!
We put the food in the Relief Society room. We had a nice variety. Jack asked one of our members who usually does the meat portion to prepare something good for us and boy he out did himself again this year. He did a delish pork roast and this amazingly good pecan crusted chicken number that I need the recipe for! Thanks Sean! It helps to have a chef in the Branch!
This year I suggested that we have a dessert contest. It was something we traditionally did years back. This cute entry was done by two cute sibling kiddos...It won 2 awards! Show offs!
Now, don't let this disgusting looking photo ruin your appetite for dessert. This was taken after the judges were done...and those were my contributions! They were very good too. The raspberry, chocolate cheese cake truffle tasted better than this looks!
After dinner we gave out the awards for the desserts and the winners picked them out of my Grinch's bag. I even won for best tasting. However, since I bought the gifts I gave mine away! Sorry the Grinch came out blurry, but then he is the Grinch after all...I wasn't going to let him spoil my post!
We got Santa ready for his big reveal...Thanks Rick for helping out. He and wife just moved here this Summer when he took a position at the University...After this he may not feel so bad about having to move again next Summer!
The kiddos, old and young, made a quick visit to get a candy cane and quick reminder of what was on their list. Thanks again to our North Pole helper!
Well, as Santa would say: "Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night".

Miracle on Main Street

Saturday Jack and I were in town at his office and as were were getting ready to leave he mentioned the event going on downtown. It was called "Miracle on Main Street". It's a movement to try and revitalize our downtown area. Many small towns have lost their charming shopping areas. Some have found a way to make them inviting to tourists and town folk alike. Ashland has felt the economic crunch for years. With big factories that have left, and big box stores that have sprung up with strip malls and convenience stores to boot, it killed a thriving downtown. We headed off to see what was happening. There are stores still there that have managed to keep in business and others that are hoping to increase in business. So I decided to take a few pics and share them. We talked about what was here when Jack was a boy and what was here when we moved back in 1977. I wish I was a blogger back then and had some comparison shots...it's just not the same. But we had a pleasant walk and went into a few places. Ate a delish lunch at the Chinese restaurant...and we could hear the rukus from the chili cookoff that was going on in one of the buildings. I hope a miracle can happen here. I'll take you on a quick tour with us! This is the outside of a cute coffee shop that seems to do a good business and the food is good too. I blogged about them last year when my Mom was here over Thanksgiving.
There was a time when these streets were lined with parked cars and the sidewalks were crowed with holiday shoppers. There were jewelery stores, men's and women's clothing stores, card shops, office supplies, pharmacies, shoe stores, 5 and 10's and a 3 story department store. Many others too. The malls and the Wal-Marts, the Targets and the K-Marts made sure that didn't last. Shop keepers just could not compete. Even if you could get shops back, people don't want to park and walk a few blocks anymore.
This sign says it all..it's a kid's clothing store. Kid's Kountry has been around forever too. When stores started pulling out of downtown Kid's Kountry held their ground. Urged and encouraged others to stay put. But many just couldn't compete and left. Inside you'll find really good, and also very cute, children's clothing, shoes, school uniforms, tutus...you name it!
The front of Kid's Kountry.
This is an interesting store. Yes, it's a bike shop. They sell wonderful bikes and accessories for biking. I never have bought a bike from here....I should though, I need the exercise. But the real story is the shop owner. Friends who do bike and shop there tell me he remembers your name...forever. If you walk in there 10yrs later he will greet you by name. Now, that could mean he only has a few customers and it's easy to remember just a few folks...or it could mean he's weird...or maybe he's like my hubby who has a wonderful ability to remember people's names. I'll go for that explanation!
Sitting over on the corner is Mike's Music store....whenever I see it I think of the movie with Judy Garland where she gets a job at Christmas time in a music store. It was one of the movies that inspired "You've Got Mail" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan...but I digress! Thankfully there's a place where kiddos can get musical instruments for school...I still have a saxophone on a closet shelf that was used by one of my kiddos.
The Candy and Nut Shoppe has all the homemade chocolate and other confections you could ask for. It's another business that has been a staple of Main Street.
I guess the real miracle is Home Hardware has been here forever...even before me moving here! It's a miracle that having a big box store move in across from the Wal-Mart has not put it out of business. In fact, it has a strong following. First of all, the employees are there in plain sight and actually know how to help you..and the service they have on appliances is good and reliable too. They would even help you carry out your packages if needed. You can find everything in there from paint, to toys, to do-dads and thingamajigs....Santa is there too! My Christmas wish would be that a true "Miracle on Main Street" would be a revitalization of many small town, downtowns like ours. You just gotta believe!

Put A Fork In Me, I'm Done

It's over..yes, my work day is over. I know everyone is always thrilled when Friday comes. I've mentioned that work has been less than ideal these past few weeks. We have been warned that December will be a killer month in surgery. It usually is. People want to get any surgery done before the end of the year. I get it. But today was one crazy, busy, never ending day. The call team is still there I'm sure. They will be there tomorrow morning to finish up what we couldn't get done today. The previous call team had been there almost all night Thursday into Friday morning. Ever worked 24hrs? Ever had to work 24hrs and then continue to do your regular shift? I know we signed up for this when we chose this profession. I get that too. I've been a bit whiney lately so just let me vent and I'll be better tomorrow...Just for a recap of today: First thing this morning one of our new operating rooms flooded and we had to move everything to another room that we had closed down and that delayed the surgeries scheduled in that room...All the other rooms were booked solid and then we added the usual emergency stuff...no relief people..lunch grabbed when it could be grabbed...cranky surgeons...cranky nurses...our supervisor had the day off...the RN in my room stabbed herself in the abdomen with a hypo needle...don't ask...frankly that was the best part of my day. I actually laughed. Ok, I'm done...I'm walking on my bloody stumps to the couch. Oh, I did ask the RN in my room to reenact the "stabbing" incident for the blog. Trust me, it was blog worthy....maybe next week I'll have a picture to prove it! Ok, now I'm really done. The End...P.S..I'd better qualify my stabbing comments to say the RN was not injured and she laughed too...and I forgot about the fire alarms going off in the break room when some toast in the toaster burned...Ok, all done now.

You Crazy Kids!

Ok, so they aren't exactly "kids"...Our good friend Derrik married his sweetheart on Saturday. We enjoyed the simple, but beautiful ceremony and small reception they had for family and friends. I always kid about Derrik being the "mountain man" with his burly face and crazy hair, but he's actually a world traveler and successful business man who met his new wife in China awhile back. She's a sweetie and I'm so happy for them both. I kidded him about the language barrier and asked if Shawn knew for sure she was really agreeing to marry him. I think she understood completely! Congrats!
The rings were exchanged after a lovely ceremony. They said a sweet endearment in Chinese after the rings. Both the Bride and Groom had tears...Oh Derrik, you old softie!
After dinner they shared the cake..the traditional "cut the cake and feed it to each other" part. No smeared frosting. That's how a mature couple handles it!
Good luck you two crazy kids! We wish you all the best...if I could say it in Chinese I would. I'll have to ask my Son Craig how to do that!

Black Friday

Today is Black Friday. Like many people I was up early, dressed and ready to hit the road..only I wasn't going shopping. My Black Friday consisted of gall bladders, a broken hip, wrist, hand and a patient who thought having a colonoscopy the day after Thanksgiving was a good idea...We don't usually do those in our operating room but he wanted to be completely out..asleep I mean. I guess his Friday was blacker than mine! Well, I don't ever go shopping on this day anyway. I can't think of one thing I would ever want that much to fight the crowds or lose sleep over! A few coworkers did head out early before work and had some tales to tell but they sounded pretty benign so I'm glad they were able to find gifts at a good price. This pic is of a gift from my hubby last week. I was having a not so great week and coming home to find these on the table did put a smile on my face. They were beautiful! I'm thankful for a great guy like Jack who always tries to cheer me up, or keep me grounded when I'm off on a tangent! Thanks babe, your one of the many things I have to be thankful for in my life. Well, I had a few things to get ready to make yesterday's meal something that would put a smile on everyone's face!
Thanksgiving dinner means getting all the goodies to put this meal on. With my trusty list in hand I headed out. We still had to make a run Thanksgiving morning for a couple of "oh, shoot, I forgot" items.
I made only 3 pies this year since we weren't having as big a group as usual. Mmmmm...more pie for us! Let's see, we had pecan, raspberry, and of course Jack's favorite..pumpkin chiffon.
Lexi was all smiles as she ate herself silly!
Addy had a meal that she said was "delishous"...
Last year for Thanksgiving we had a crowd of about 25..this year just these guys, the little girls and Eddy the wonder dog showed up..but it was a feast anyway and I was as tired this year as I was last year. Go figure!
After dinner I grabbed the girls and we hiked up to the Creepy Woods to work off that meal...we took Eddy too and he made sure we didn't get lost. In this pic I was showing them that if you get lost, just hug a tree and wait to be found. Can you find Eddy in the pic? How about just his stubby little tail?
We came down from our romp in the Creepy Woods and the girls couldn't resist playing on Jack's wood pile that is waiting to be split. Now, if we could teach them how to split and stack the wood instead of playing on it we would be happy campers!
Weather permitting, we always take our pumpkins that are left from Halloween and shoot them with arrows. Well, I shoot them with arrows, the guys usually get out the guns and take care of the leftovers after I'm done! I actually broke an arrow and my bow this year. I'm a tough cookie when it comes to archery. Of course using a bird bath as the pumpkin stand wasn't the smartest thing!
With the guns a blazing in the yard, Eddy found me up at the computer and sat as close as he could get until the shooting stopped. He was a thankful pup when it did! He gets so scared when he hears gunshots..I mean just look at his crazed eyes!

A Jar Full Of Surprises

Tonight we had our Church women's meeting (The Relief Society). We focused on doing something we could give as gifts for Christmas. The committee had everything decorated in Christmas colors. It looked very festive! We do our Christmas meeting in November because we don't have one in December so it's not so busy for us to try and squeeze one more thing in during that crazy month. We made "gifts in a jar"..I'm sure everyone has made these before. We have too, but they are fun and easy and nice to give away. We are just a small branch here in Ohio. So to have about 25 women there is a great turnout for us. It's been a pretty crummy week for me. Challenges at work have been very depressing. I haven't been in the best of humor..just ask Donna (Starkey Hollow)! I wasn't looking as forward to this meeting as I should have been. I have a great committee that did an awesome job of organizing this. Food was prepared, ingredients assembled, and much planning and set up was done. I was grateful I didn't have to stress over this. I was even more grateful for the fun atmosphere that was there. A special feeling of love and friendship that surprised me and brought a smile to my face that wasn't there most of this week! So the real "gift in a jar" wasn't in the ingredients....it was in the air that made it into my heart. I'm glad I was there to enjoy it!
Before we put our gifts in a jar together we had a lite meal of soup, salad and bread and dessert. The salad (made by me) was refreshing and tastey...but I almost forgot to take any pics and when I did finally get around to it, most of the food was almost gone and everything looked sort of..well, almost gone! We also had bread and an assortment of desserts that were also part of what we were putting together in our jar gift project.
We had 2 soups for our gifts in a jar. We were able to sample each soup so we could have an idea of how they would taste. Both were really good. This pic looks funny because most of the soup was gone and it didn't make for a pretty picture! Trust me when I tell you that it was wonderful!
The tables were laid out with all the ingredients and note cards that gave the amount we would need for each step in filling our jars. Funnels, measuring cups and spoons and the finishing touches with material and ribbon were all ready for us.
The finished product looks very cute. It holds most of the ingredients that you need to make a soup or a dessert. But the real gift tonight was the gathering of women of all ages to share a lite meal, fun conversation, working together, laughing, and feeling a togetherness that uplifts us. The month of November encourages us to remember our blessings, and tonight I'm grateful for this small gathering of friends.

Mother Nature Pulls A Fast One

The weather had me fooled yesterday. It was almost 70de.! It felt like Spring...it smelled like Spring..it even rained like Spring. I thought maybe I fell asleep and woke up after Winter was over...no such luck. Today the temps are still mild..but tomorrow it will be a different story. Oh well, I had a right to be confused. These flowers sure are! They continue to bloom close to the house, even with the earlier hard frosts we've had. On top of the warmth, and rain we even had tornado warnings yesterday. Mother Nature is such a kidder!

With the warmer temps came the wind. The scarecrow was almost blown over...his little legs just flapping in the breeze!
I don't know if you can tell from this pic, but the tops of the pines are blowing in the wind like crazy. The pine trees are a great protection from the wind. When we first moved here they were not anywhere near as tall as they are now. We used to be able to fly a kite in the back yard..not anymore..they just block out all the wind!
These two pine cones were hanging on for dear life. No matter how hard the wind blew, they held on. Reminded me of Jack and I...the winds and storms have been trying to blow us here and there, but we're hanging on tight!
I braved the crazy wind and took a quick walk around the yard. When I got up to the Creepy Woods I noticed this pile of leaves.
Those leaves all used to be here under these bare trees...that is until the wind blow all of them into the woods...I laughingly thought: "Hey, God raked my leaves! Thank you!"
If you stand back here it really does look much neater..much nicer...but would expect any less of God than to rake such a nice pile for us?

Let's Not Forget

Today at work they made an announcement over the PA at 11:00am...a moment of silence to remember our Veterans. It's hard to quiet an operating room but we did it. I'm not sure if all our operating rooms were at a point where silence could be observed, but I was glad to take just a minute and say a prayer of thanks for all those men and women who gave their time and/or their lives to keep our freedoms. I was sorry a minute was all that was allowed, but believe me I never forget those brave souls. Men like my Dad who served in WWII. Men like my brothers Phil and Greg who served in Vietnam. Thanks to all who served and continue to serve today. I wish we could have a day to rejoice a time of complete peace in the world. I guess we just have to be content for now for a special day to just remember. Thank You Veterans.

Come Saturday Morning

We headed out to the Farmer's Market this bright and sunny Saturday morning. After getting some goodies there we went to a few places that were having Christmas open house. Ashland has a few really cute shops and to promote them there is a stop and shop promotion. There are even prizes! Our first stop at the open houses was to Annette's Victorian Garden. It's a florist shop but it holds much more than flowers! Annette is a sweet lady who really has built up her business in the last few years. I've never been disappointed at any arrangements I've gotten there. It's very convenient that it's only two buildings down from Jack's office! He often surprises me with beautiful flowers! It's housed in an old victorian home that has had a few transformations over the years.
Every part of the building is decorated. It's a place that used to have a coffee shop and an apartment upstairs. It's worth the stop to see and enjoy all the hidden treasures.
The shop's main floor was lovely but I enjoy going up these beautiful stairs and seeing what goodies await me!
This is the kitchen to the apartment upstairs. It had every nook and cranny full of Christmas cheer and some wonderful spiced cider to enjoy. Needless to say it smelled festive too!
I loved the look of this tree in the upstairs sitting room. It's not one I would put in my house but it looked very fun here!
All the time we were "browsing", Annette's Mom was playing Christmas music on the dulcimer. It was a fun stop!
I took a hike up the street while Jack stayed at his office to do some quick work. This shop is called Backdoor Primitives. It's down a little alley not far from Jack's office. I stumbled across it a few years ago. I've been a regular ever since.
Backdoor Primitives is jam packed with new and old things. They are big on rug hooking and have classes. They have many cute things for little ones too. I just enjoy wandering around in there and it's where I usually get my Lori Mitchell dolls. I've posted about those in the past.
My final stop was at The Gleaner Antiques shop. It's really cute inside but they don't allow any picture taking. The grounds outside are nice too and I wish I could show you how many fun and interesting things that await you on the inside. I guess you'll just have to come visit to find out!
Here's a taste of what I picked up on my ventures today. I thought this painting was pretty. I got it at Annette's Victorian Garden.
I picked these up at the Backdoor Primitives. I collect Lori Mitchell figures and I thought these were cute and different...
Well, the day is flying by and I'd better get on with outdoor work to fill in the rest of today. It's sunny and, not exactly warm, but nice enough to finish off some last minute tasks. I think squeak will just have to lead me in the right direction!